New Nunavut premier takes office as federal government pushes infrastructure drive

OTTAWA — As John Main settled in for one of his first interviews since being chosen as Nunavut’s new premier, his phone rang while he was in the middle of a sentence.

“Hi Doug,” he said, taking a congratulatory call from Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

“I’ve been inundated with people reaching out,” Main said after hanging up. “It’s a little bit surreal right now.”

On Thursday, Main was sworn in as Nunavut’s seventh premier, two days after his fellow MLAs selected him under Nunavut’s consensus government system.

The call from Ford — one of many courtesy calls he’s received this week — is emblematic of the relationship-building Main has vowed to pursue, particularly in Ottawa.

“You know, we’re such a young territory, we have such a huge infrastructure gap that we need partners at the federal level if we’re going to ever narrow that gap,” Main told The Canadian Press.

“Ottawa needs to understand our reality.”

A 2020 report by Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated, which represents Inuit in Nunavut, suggested infrastructure in the territory lagged behind all other Canadian jurisdictions by a wide margin. Significant gaps in housing, health care, airports and power generation have hindered the territory’s economic, social and cultural well-being, the report said.

“What I used to say is we’re not even at the start line … where the other provinces in southern Canada are already in the race,” said former Nunavut premier Joe Savikataaq, who was — until Main — the territory’s only premier from the hamlet of Arviat.

“Not a whole lot of federal development has been happening in Nunavut for infrastructure purposes,” he said. “We get promises that they’re going to do this and they’re going to do that. But not a whole lot has materialized in a long time.”

In its pre-budget submission, Nunavut Tunngavik called for $70 million in annual federal infrastructure funding over the next six years for Nunavut.

While the federal government didn’t earmark any Nunavut-specific funding in the Nov. 4 budget, it did commit to an Arctic Infrastructure Fund of $1 billion over four years for dual-use civilian and military projects like roads, airport upgrades and ports.

That funding commitment stems from the strategy outlined in the Trudeau government’s defence policy of coupling public infrastructure construction in the Arctic with defence spending. Northern leaders have long said such an approach would help Canada meet its NATO spending targets.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s desire to build infrastructure has included an emphasis on the Arctic, demonstrated by the recent referral of a hydroelectric power project near Iqaluit to the new Major Projects Office.

Carney also has expressed a desire to build the Grey’s Bay road and port project — an economic corridor through the Arctic to open up development of critical minerals and shipments via the Northwest Passage.

But Nunavut’s NDP MP Lori Idlout said the territory’s needs go beyond investment in major projects, as the federal government has defined them. She said Main is well positioned to drive that point home with Ottawa.

“I think that he can bring in a fresh lens about what major projects can be,” Idlout told The Canadian Press, citing investments in education as an example.

“We’re still trying to use traditional Western colonial methods to lift up Inuit, and I think that he can balance that approach so that we see major projects being (as) investing in Nunavummiut.”

Main, 45, may be the first non-Inuk to hold Nunavut’s premiership, but his Arctic roots run deep.

His parents moved to Arviat, along the western shore of Hudson’s Bay, in the 1970s. His father worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company and his mother was a teacher.

“I was very fortunate to kind of be immersed in Inuit language and also enjoyed a lot of outdoor activities as a kid,” said Main, who speaks fluent Inuktitut.

“So I had a really amazing upbringing in Arviat, which is a beautiful community.”

After graduating from Mount Allison University with a degree in economics, he returned to the territory and went to work for the regional Inuit organization and the chamber of commerce, and as a television reporter for CBC North, which broadcasts in Inuktitut.

Some across Nunavut have made social media posts expressing disappointment that the territory will not be led by a beneficiary of the Nunavut Agreement, but the posts and comments supporting Main’s leadership have far outweighed those of his detractors.

“The people that grew up with him, like, we forget that he’s not a beneficiary,” childhood friend Jack Lindell told The Canadian Press.

“If there’s going to be the first non-beneficiary premier, I can see why it’s John. Because, especially our family and … our extended family, he’s just … John Main to us. He’s a great part of Arviat, the region and also the territory.”

Main said he has reflected on the historical nature of his premiership.

“It’s just, it’s very humbling. I’m fully aware that this is the Inuit homeland,” he said.

“I don’t know what else I can say other than that I’m just very humbled to be given this role, and I hope that I won’t let anybody down, and I hope that I will achieve what we need to, which is real improvements in the daily life of Nunavummiut.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 23, 2025

Nick Murray, The Canadian Press